


With A Little Help From My Friends

by lwielaura (orphan_account)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 4+1, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Domestic Avengers, Fluff, Get Together, M/M, Matchmaking, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5710165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/lwielaura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the Avengers couldn't stand all the unresolved sexual tension anymore, but they all give their very best to help<br/>or the four times the Avengers tried to play matchmaker and rhe one time if was absolutely unnecessary</p>
            </blockquote>





	With A Little Help From My Friends

I **Natasha**

Steve stared at the machine with its ridiculous amount of buttons and leavers, unsure what to do. He just came home from his daily morning walk, panting and sweating and all he wanted was a nice cup of coffee before he took a long and deserved Sunday morning shower, but Tony’s darn fancy coffee machine crossed his plans.  
“Need some help, Cap?” a voice behind him purred and he turned around to look into Natasha’s bemused face.  
“I just want coffee.” he groaned and pressed a random button to underline his helplessness, the machine gave a loud and unsettling hiss and Steve returned it unintendedly, lurking a rare smile from the assassin behind him.  
Two buttons later the machine poured some freshly brewed brown liquid into his cup and he took a sip, feeling better and more awake immediately.  
“Thanks.”, he smiled, burning his tongue but didn’t really care. “I hate this Tower. It’s the whole furniture has a mind on its own.”  
“If it makes you uncomfortable, Sir, I will refrain from assisting you any further” a sudden bodiless voice appeared.  
“Sorry, JARVIS, this is not what I meant.” Steve apologized promptly, but the AI sounded almost amused.  
A yawning mumble behind him made him jump a little and he found its origin as Tony entered the room, his hair messy, only wearing loose sweatpants and a tank top, looking utterly sleep-deprived: “Only Captain America would be polite enough to apologize to a machine.”  
Steve’s sassy reply got stuck in his throat, his eyes fixed on the rare appearance before him, blood rushing through his veins, a loud thump in his ear. Usually Tony was wearing suits, always looking ready for eventual press or a spontaneous (more likely: totally forgotten and then, after being reminded by a displeased Pepper) business meetings. On the rare occasions of a day off, such as this Sunday obviously, Tony usually spent his time in his workshop, sometimes dropping by for a coffee or movie night after one of the team dragged him out. So Steve felt it was his duty to make the most out of moments like this by totally losing his head and just staring at the other man, who seemed to be much too tired and focused to even notice.  
But – he totally forgot the third person in the room, until she made herself noticed. Natasha cleared her throat definitely louder than necessary, Steve returned to the present word, feeling a creeping blush he tried to hide by taking another sip of his cup, swallowed it the wrong way and started coughing violently.  
Tony, who finished making himself a coffee, patted his back sympathetically, smiled a sleepy: “See you later, got stuff to do. And uhm… if Pepper asks where I am, tell her something creative. Natasha, you’re a spy, why don’t you think of something?”, before he exited the room, leaving a smirking Natasha and a still blushing and coughing Steve behind, who felt the part of his back, where Tony has touched him, burning.  
After he managed to calm down, he felt the woman’s stare on his back of the head.  
“What?”  
“Well, I can help you with your coffee every morning, but I don’t know which levers and buttons to pull on Stark.”  
Steve, who risked taking another sip, regretted his decision immediately.  
“Get your shit together, Rogers, or I need to start some drastic measures.” she simply replied, also patting his back, before heading to the gym.  
He stayed at the kitchen, lost for a moment, before he thought about what to do. His choice fell on a very cold shower.

 

II **Rhodey**

Rhodey was in town for a few days to everyone’s great pleasure. Not only the fact that Tony’s best fried clinked with the rest of the Avengers absolutely well, especially with Clint and Natasha, it was also a known fact that every time he visited Tony was in a good, stable and even sociable mood, so the days and especially the common evenings were always great fun.  
They even missed their weekly movie night to hang out in the common room of the Stark Tower. More precisely: they all wooed when Rhodey and Tony put some high class fancy Scotch on the table, which was emptied to a great level at this point of the evening.  
Thor declined, just to pull out some of his Asgardian wine, which he insisted sharing with Super-Metabolism Steve, who seemed to be a bit tipsy as well, but the rest of them helped themselves generously.  
Natasha and Clint were a laughing puddle on the floor, so close to each other that you could hardly say where the one started and the other one ended, Steve and Sam were standing at the balcony, obviously discussing interesting birds on the roofs of New York, Thor was mourning because he was missing Jane, to which Bruce listened with glassy eyes, not realizing how he drank from an empty glass for half an hour by now – and then there were Tony and Rhodey.  
They had some practice in gatherings like this, MIT and post-MIT times, which meant so much like a long and common history of alcohol, dumb ideas and surprisingly deep talks.  
“No way… There’s no WAY that you’ll dooooit.”, Tony laughed and looked at Rhodey with a mixture of worry and amusement. Rhodey himself was standing on the table, hardly holding his balance, while he seemed to be calculating if it was worth to jump at the couch and risking his life (seriously, he could hardly stand) for 20 bucks or not.  
“It’s about honoooouch!” He jumped, he flew, he fell, he failed.  
One moment he seemed to be disoriented and unable to cope this sudden turn of events, suddenly lying on the floor with an aching back, but then he heard Tony’s hysterical laugh and joined because – fuck, this shit was hilarious.  
“Shuttup you… prick” he demanded as he cooled down, approaching Tony with more effort than necessary.  
“Make me.” the other one answered, still smiling.  
“Dontchu gay me, Tony baby.” He giggled.  
“Don’t… Dontchu worry.” His best friend replied, suddenly serious, as serious as the situation allowed it.  
“Nah, you’re right. But… speaking of gay. Dude, you got it soooo bad for Steve.”  
“Shut up.”  
Even with his numbed brain he managed to figure out that this conversation was leading nowhere good. He was even more likely to blab in this state of mind. Frankly, he wasn’t that inconspicuous, but nevertheless. Steve MUSN’T know.  
“Steve and Tony, sitting on a tree…”, Rhodey started to sing loud and falsely and Natasha and Clint started to chuckle wildly. Clint’s poor attempted to high five Rhodey failed and his hand hit Bruce’s knee instead, who jumped and looked around like he just awoke from a deep trance.  
“I have absoluly no idea whatcha talkin ‘bout.”, Tony mumbled and moved his hand blindly, trying to hit the Iron Partiot, but he continued merciless.  
“K-I-S-S-uhm-G”  
“Rhodes… What the fuck?”  
“Just admit… it.”  
“Admit what?”  
“Your crush, honey.”  
“What the fuck are you talking about?”  
Clint was humming something that sounded awfully lot like “Mh, stop fucking lying” and made Rhodey lose his shit.  
“It’s the way you look at him. And at his ass. You poor bastard.”  
“Shush, Iron Idiot, or I’ll make you.”  
“Stop flirting you bitch. HEY STEVE!” he suddenly yelled and Tony jumped, tried to get up quickly and hit his head on his table, suddenly seeing stars… and stripes, as Steve entered the room.  
“What’s up?” he asked suspiciously, and you couldn’t blame him since he was almost sober and they were four grown-ass adults lying on the floor, behaving like preschoolers.  
“Tony wants to say someth-“  
Tony clapped his hand against his best friend’s mouth, hissing at him warningly.  
“Uhm, yeah, Tony?”  
But the older man couldn’t hear him anymore since they started jostling with each other.  
His: “I think I’ll go to bed” remained unheard. 

 

III **Clint**

“Are those Captain America shorts?” Clint asked with wide eyes as he stared down at Tony, who blinked back at him in utter confusion.  
“Fuck, these ARE Captain America shorts!” he exclaimed as he risked a second look and busted into hysterical laughter.  
“It’s the middle of the night, birdbrain, you better have a good reason or I’ll break your fucking neck.”  
“I’m so sorry, but, fuck, you can’t be serious.”  
“That’s it, Katniss, you’re dead.”  
“Sorry. But it’s 3 in the afternoon so technically every normal person should be awake by now and I just wanted to ask if you could check my computer because I think there’s something wrong with it, a virus or god knows, but holy shit, Tony, why do you even own pants with Steve’s face on them. If you’d want him in your pants you could just ask him, I’m sure he wouldn’t say no.”  
“You deserve every virus, you son of a bitch.”  
Clint had to suppressed another wave of laughter.  
“I mean it, Tony, just ask him.  
Tony didn’t dare to keep up the eye contact. Ok, maybe he had a little crush… Or maybe he had it really really bad on Captain Fucking America. But he never intended to be panting so obvious, because god dammnit, he was a grown ass man and crushes were something for teenage girls and this was getting ridiculous.  
“Shut it, Legolas.” he tried to laugh it off, but felt Clint’s knowing smirk still on him.  
“Ok, I’ll fix your so called computer, seriously, it’s 2016, you’re definitely getting some proper tech for Christmas this year, and you’ll stop talking shit like that. Deal?”  
“Deal. But nevertheless, you better ask him out.”  
Tony smashed the door shut. 

 

IV **James**

Bucky stayed at the Avengers tower for two months now. He always insisted he didn’t move in but he actually kind of… did.  
And he started noticing things.  
He started noticing a hell lot of staring and blushing and secret smiling and an ass full of unresolved sexual tension and it was getting to his nerves. Like – hell, Steve always was a bit shy at the beginning but things were getting ridiculous right now. And he definitely expected more from Tony. This man was a playboy but he couldn’t bring it over him to finally ask his best friend out or pinning him against the wall or god knows what else. This mutual pining and denial was just… annoying.  
So it came that one morning, Steve and himself where sitting on the kitchen table, enjoying their scrambled eggs, and Tony entered the room, on the phone with – it sounded like Pepper how he tried to justify his missing on a previous meeting – and Steve was much too concentrated not to look up from his plate, although he could see his pupils twitch to the corner of his eye, and a faint blush on his cheeks.  
Bucky growled frustrated, feeling the glares of both men.  
“You’re so fucking pathetic, both of you.”  
He suddenly got up, exited the kitchen while yelling: “JARVIS, lock the kitchen doors and let them sort their shit out. I’ve had enough.”  
The contending clicking of a lock paired with the AI’s voice: “As you please, Sir.”, and even the computer seemed much too pleased with the situation.  
“What the fuck”, he heard Tony yell from the other side, while Steve seemed to try to kick in the doors.  
“You two stay in there. JARVIS will let you out as soon as you sort your shit out. Have a nice day.” James smiled back, getting away from the crime scene. They’ll thank him soon enough.  
But ten minutes later he heard steps on the stairs, leading to his room, angry steps, approaching angry steps.  
He looked up a bit confused as his door was kicked in, now facing a pissed Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, both looking a bit rattled but not in a sex-way.  
“How did you love birds escape?” he asked grinning, hoping for the best.  
“Never trap a genius and a super soldier, they’ll find a way.” Tony replied.  
“Whatever.”, Bucky answered disapprovingly.  
“What was that about, Buck?” Steve asked and crossed his arms in front of his chest.  
“You perfectly know it and now leave me alone; I can’t stand how you glare into each other’s eyes.”  
He got up and slammed his door shut, a smug smirk on his lips as he saw their surprised faces.  
Whatever, this was just about time.

 

V **Bonus**

There were so many people he didn’t knew, or he should knew but he never made an effort to remember names and faces and they all were getting drunk and Tony stood there, his own drink in his hand, and although he would never put it like this, he had to admit that he was –  
“You’re sulking.” Clint grinned behind him, nipped on his beer and raising his eyebrows.  
“Yep, definitely sulking.” Natasha agreed because of course, wherever Clint was, the assassin couldn’t be far away.  
“Leave him alone, he’s missing Steve.” Bruce interfered sympathetically, patting his arm a bit awkwardly.  
“I am not.” Tony mumbled but actually, he couldn’t deny that this was the truth.  
“Man of iron, this is your birthday. It is time to have a fest the Midgardians won’t forget.” Thor suddenly yelled, which made everybody jump.  
“He’s lovesick, Thor, no chance.”  
“Shut up, Clint, I’m not lovesick, this party just sucks.”  
“Because you’re infamous for your quiet life, always avoiding parties and so on, right, Stark?”, Natasha smiled and took a straight shot of vodka from a passing tablet, making Clint’s nose crinkle.  
Ok, so he actually didn’t like any of his birthday parties so far. There were always too many people and although he usually didn’t mind at all – in contrary – he really didn’t want to celebrate with all those false faces and important connection, because, although he hated to think that, all that mattered was around him right now and he would be perfectly happy to lock himself in a room in the Stark Tower, just celebrating with his own small family. So he thought this year would be different. Actually, he was absolutely sure it would be. But after Steve announced two months ago that S.H.I.E.L.D. would send him on a mission, not entirely clear when he would returned, Tony immediately lost all hope and tried to accept the fact that this birthday would be such as miserable as any other one before it.  
He sighed, taking another long gulp from his drink, feeling the warmth of the alcohol spreading in his body but for once it didn’t help. Shit. If even alcohol didn’t help him escape these fucking feelings –  
“Hey, guys.” A voice behind them appeared and they all turned around.  
“You’re late.” Tony said drily.  
“Whatever, I needed to organize a present for my favourite asshole, right?” Bucky replied and Tony couldn’t help but smile. Maybe this birthday wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe his friends where enough for the moment.  
“Yes, because who wouldn’t give a present to someone with a ten digit bank account, right?” Clint laughed and Natasha cuffed his side.  
“Twelve digits, Robin Hood, but he’s right. You shouldn’t have, Barnes.”  
“Shut it. You’ll love it.” Bucky smiled self-assured, giving him a little wink.  
“Ok, but I hate surprises so… What is it?” Tony frowned, looking at him expectantly.  
A pair of hands covered his eyes and his instant panic settles down, as he recognized the voice behind him: “I guess you’ll like this one.”  
“STEVE!” Tony exclaimed, embarrassingly excited, making the rest of the team chuckle. But the laughter died at once as he turned around and planted a kiss right on Captain America’s mouth.  
He felt Steve’s lip turn into a smile as he grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer.  
Their kiss lasted for long and was much too filthy for a public gathering but they didn’t mind, they didn’t see each other for a month and Tony missed him like crazy and he knew they shouldn’t but he couldn’t help.  
“What the fuck is going on?” Clint interrupted.  
“Like seriously, we all tried to play armor and you secretly got it going already?” Bucky asked, sounding almost angry, eyes squirmed on Steve.  
“For how long?” Bruce asked, obviously hearing the theory of them being together for the first time. Good old oblivious Bruce.  
“You wouldn’t want to know.” Tony mumbled, arm around Steve’s waist.  
“I fucking want to know.” Bucky demanded.  
“Remember when you asked me to repair your computer?”  
“No fucking way? Did you… after this.”  
“Nope. Steve was lying in my bed all naked already. And I want to repeat that so, if you’ll excuse me, I still got birthday for twenty minutes and I still want to get laid.”  
He kissed Bucky straight on his mouth, winking “Thanks for your present” before pulling a blushing Steve behind him, destination unknown.  
“Brothers and sisters!” Thor yelled after a moment of shocked silence. “You all owe me 20 of your earth money for I have won the bet. To our freshly engaged S.H.I.E.L.D. brothers.” And he raised his glass.  
They all joined him, pained expressions on their faces, as they chugged their drinks and handed Thor his money.


End file.
